Date: 27 February 2011
The meeting began at 7:03 pm with prayer by Sister Crystal Johnson. There were a total of seven (7) callers who participated on the call. Members are encouraged to call in each week to take care of the business of the ISA in an efficient manner.
Roll call produced the following member activity.
January minutes were approved as read.
Members present:
1. Timothy D. Wilson, President – Washington DC **
2. Anissa L. Guyton, Vice-President of Membership – Romulus, MI **
3. Crystal Johnson, Treasurer - Virginia Beach, VA **
4. Buford Collins (Education and Training) - Ferndale, MI *
5. Donna Crite (Education and Training) - Odenton, MI
6. Seanta McClendon (Scholarships and Awards) - Melbourne, Florida **
7. Victor James, Sr. – Indianapolis, IN
Guest callers:
1. Nicola Thomas – St. Louis
2. Hazel Proctor – Virginia Beach
* Charter Member
** Life Member
Officers Report:
Treasurer’s report (pre-written):
Operations Fund Balance $606.76 - $300* = $306.76
Scholarship Fund Balance $525.00
*still waiting for $300 check to clear to IRS for 501(c)3 application.
ACTION: Treasurer
Membership report: ISA President reported that the ISA received our 27th member from Phoenix Arizona, Darnell Brown. Please welcome Darnell to the ISA. There continues to be a movement of inquiry to have an ISA chapter. We anticipate increased professional membership with the establishment of chapters. Members and non members are encouraged to log on our website to register for the 2011-2012 membership calendar. All non Life Time members must pay $50.00 to be active members from 1 July-30 June 2012. Non active members will not be able to vote for the upcoming elections or business of the ISA at the Convention. Please contact Sister Anissa Guyton for all questions concerning membership
For membership please log on and make payment on the website.
ACTION: Anissa Guyton, VP of Membership - isa.vpofmembership@yahoo.com
Public Relations report:
Public relations: The ISA is seeking leadership for the Public Relations position. The treasurer has asked that we keep our focus on the loss of funds due to not maximizing our advertising account funds. We lost $65.00 in opportunity cost because we did not advertise using our account.
ACTION: Board of Directors
Education and Training report: No report was provided however efforts continue to document the standards and curriculum of Steppin. The GSDTA will continue our efforts to gather more information and codification of Steppin during our upcoming convention in Chicago. The Vice President of Education and Training position is vacant and the ISA is looking for leadership in this position in June. If you would like to nominate someone please forward the nomination in by 1 June 2011.
ACTION: Buford Collins, Bonita Williams, Donna Crite, Lloyd Henderson and Darryl Wilder
Committees:
The following committee’s need ISA members to volunteer to assist: Please contact the committee chairpersons associated with each committee. We need your support to make sure all ISA goals are successful. Remember we are doing this on behalf of all Steppers and members of the ISA. Please join and participate.
ISA Convention Planning – Volunteers needed to help finalize agenda. Please email info@internationalsteppersassociation.org.
ISA Convention Planning – Sarah Teagle (mysteppersclub@gmail.com) – No report provided due to traveling.
Website Management – Valerie Morman (Valerie_Morman@hotmail.com) – No report
Scholarship and Awards – Seanta Mclendon (seanta@cfl.rr.com) – Preparations continue for the Black and White Scholarship and Awards dinner. She is putting together a superb program for recognizing ISA members and high school students.
ACTION: Oswald Cooper, Tracey Sisco, Brenda Foster, Patricia Alexander, Demaris Wooten
History – Victor James (vjsolo1@sbcglobal.net) – Brother James continues to research in preparation for his submission to documenting vernacular dance in the urban Steppin community. His efforts will be a large part of our input to the overall ISA education manual. Brother Victor James forwarded an email to look for others to help develop a paragraph or other contributions on the history of Steppin. His effort will be reported by 1 March 2011. This effort is important as we try to detail a centralized history of the Swing as it relates to Steppin. The history is more concerned with dance as opposed to a cultural or local perspective. Each community does highlight a local aspect however research is more centered on the development of dance as it relates to Steppin. This effort will be also included in the training manual.
ACTION: Darnell Brown, Zakeeyaw Toney
Strategic Planning – Samuel Parker, Jr. (parkersam1@aol.com) – No report given.
ACTION: Scott Freeman, A.G. Dunn
Business Planning – Deborah Hunt (Deborah.l.hunt@att.net): Congratulations to Deborah for acquiring over $5000 from the Susan B. Coleman Foundation. Her non-profit event will be held on 2 April 2011. She has set a standard which we will follow.
ACTION: Jim Berry, Pamela Dunn
ISA Convention: The ISA will be presenting a weekend of business meetings, scholarship and training and recognition for the hard work we have shared with the Steppers community. As we gear up and begin laying the foundation for what is to come we are asking everyone to jump in and lend a hand. We will need everyone’s participation in the coming days to shape our event and to plan for 2011-2012. This is the second time that we will be in the same place at one time. We are anticipating guests and attendees from various dance genres for the Urban Swing Collaborative. Please register early to avoid additional chargers.
GSDTA Steppers Intensive (Cost $299.00): The GSDTA forwarded a written proposal for the Steppers Intensive Training. Skippy Blair has assured us that we will have her best trainer in World Champion dancer Mary Ann Nunez. She is well respected in the dance community and brings a wealth of certification and training knowledge. Certainly our ISA members will benefit greatly from her participation. ISA member Buford Collins will be teaching in tandem for a total of 9 hours of training. For those that participate the hours will go towards your a GSDTA certification. If you do not know how to count using “critical timing” or understand the Universal Unit System this is the course for you. The system teaches instructors the universal language of dance using standard terms, definitions and techniques used by professional dance instructors worldwide. Instructors will see massive improvements in their ability to teach and student’s ability to understand and retain more knowledge. Buford is well on his way to certification and hopefully he will become the first Stepper to reach GSDTA certification. Our goal is to obtain enough certifiers to ultimately train ourselves in the long run. I will also be taking the class along with a few guests who you will read about below. The cost for the 9 hours is $299.00. Payments need to be made prior to 1 June 2011. A late fee of $20.00 will be added after the 1st of June. Please do not delay so that the ISA will be able to pay all expenses prior to the convention. Please log on www.internationalsteppersassociation.org and go to the shopping cart.
ISA Collaborative: The ISA lead program is collaborating with Urban Dances (Hand Dance, Texas Two-Step, Texas Swing Out, Philly Bop, Detroit Ballroom, Cha Cha, Hip Hop and Line Dancing) to jointly write a single curriculum and syllabus for each dance. The ISA is sharing our corporate knowledge to build this effort with the other leaders of their dance. Thus far the Presidents/representatives from each genre have agreed to collaborate on this project. We have set aside 3 hours on 26 June 2011 to discuss and complete an intensive draft. This has never been done before so we are excited. Our next phone call is on 13 March 2011. If you are interested in participating please forward an email accordingly.
Upcoming elections: ISA elections are coming up in June. We are now taking nominations for the following vacant offices. Please refer to your ISA Operations Instructions for roles, responsibilities and term limits. Officers must have membership of at least 1 year before serving prior to the election. Voting will take place by electronic voting.
Nominations end 1 June 2011.
1. Vice-President
2. Vice-President of Education
3. Vice-President of Public Affairs
New business:
ISA Advocacy: There have been a few requests for ISA advocacy on behalf of Steppers. We are looking in to how much support we can provide (i.e. legal referrals, non-profit organization, union participation) to members. Our constitution does provide guidelines for a Code of Ethics however the topic of contracts and legal assistance seems to be the biggest challenge from those who are inquiring. The ISA may begin to play a great role in assisting Steppers help to avoid challenges they are facing. More to come on this topic during the meeting.
The ISA Operating Instructions are available to all ISA members. The integrity of what we are accomplishing shows in our work and continued growth. Lets continue to lead the effort to expand the community by inclusion to the other 7 billion people on earth. Your commitment and purpose is more than sufficient to move this worth purpose forward.
The ISA convention planning will take place on bi-monthly meetings. The ISA Convention planners will ensure that all efforts are taking place on behalf of the registered members. The meeting times will be 7pm Eastern Standard Time. The following Sunday dates will be the planning dates:
· March 13 and 27
· April 8 and 22
· May 8 and 22
· June 12
Elections: The following positions will be up for election in June.
· Vice-President
· Vice-President of Public Relations
· Vice-President of Education
· Voting Board of Directors
· Non-Voting Directors
Nominations are now open and will close on 1 June 2011
Scholarship announcement: The ISA search for students to receive an ISA Scholarship continues. If you know of a deserving student, please log on to the website and submit a nomination package.
Chapter Membership: Chapter membership fee is $100.00. All local chapters require seven (7) ISA members to join. Local chapters will be able to use the 501 c 3 number to help raise donations for local community programs. All grants, projects and programs must meet approval of the ISA Board of Directors. There is a small operation fee for usage of the ISA non-profit number. Interested cities to date:
- Memphis, TN
- Los Angeles, CA
- Atlanta, GA
- Miami, FL
- Boston, MA
Logo Restrictions: Not discussed
ACTION: Tabled until 27 March 2011
Life Membership nominal fee: Not discussed
ACTION: Member should make a motion at next meeting for a vote
Urban Dance Collaboration: Collaborative call will be on 13 March 2011 at 7pm EST.
ACTION: ISA President, Education and Training Committee
The meeting adjourned at 8:00pm with closing prayer lead by the ISA Treasurer, Crystal Johnson.
The next ISA general meeting will be on Sunday, 27 March 2011 at 7pm Eastern Standard Time. Please dial in by 6:45pm so that we can start on time. The dial in number is 1-218-862-1000 ACCESS CODE: 307375#.
Signed for,
Timothy D. Wilson
President
